Medical devices, such as implantable medical devices, are used for delivering a therapy and/or monitoring physiological conditions of a patient. For example, an implantable medical device may deliver electrical stimulation or fluid therapy to, and/or monitor conditions associated with, the heart, muscle, nerve, brain, stomach or other organs or tissues of the patient. Example implantable medical devices include cardiac pacemakers, cardioverters, defibrillators and, devices that combine two or more functions of the aforementioned example implantable medical devices.
It is common for medical devices, such as implantable medical devices, to include a memory that stores parameters that define operations of the implantable medical device. A health care professional, based on measured patient functions, typically sets the operating parameters of the implantable medical device. The operating range of a medical device is typically very broad to accommodate a wide range of patients and their conditions. However parts of a programmable range may not be appropriate or safe for a specific patient. Setting the correct programmable operating parameters of the implantable medical device is critical in providing a desired therapeutic benefit. Moreover, setting the programmable parameters within this range but outside of what is desirable for a specific patient could cause serious harm and even death to the patient. Currently care professionals require extensive training and experience to safely and effectively operate the implantable medical device system. However the proliferation of medical device patients leads to a broader population of health care professionals interacting with the medical devices who may not have had the same extensive training.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an effective and efficient method of limiting programmable parameters of a implantable medical device based on patient specific data to provide personalized programmable ranges which are appropriate for a wide range of healthcare professionals.